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Everybody is interested in low
back pain (LBP) and the reason is that most everybody gets it. It is rare for a person to
go through their life and by the time you’ve my age, certainly if you haven’t had back
pain a few times you are very unusual. They say that 80% of the population get back pain
and my guess is that it is probably closer to 100%. It is more unusual not to have ever
had back pain than to have had it. It is one of the leading causes for physician office
visits and for filing disability claims. And during the last 30 years disability claims
have increased 13 fold. And it is very interesting, I go to spine surgery meetings in the
department of orthopedic surgery and one of the things some of them like to say is that
believe that one of the reasons for the very much increased rates of spine surgery is the
number of young people who are, for various reasons, destroying their backs; particularly
people who move furniture and do things like that. One of the things they always say is
that they often treat 30 year olds who have 75 year old backbones. So many of things I say
today, even though it is focused on the elderly, can also apply to many younger people.
Annual medical costs related to LBP are tremendous. The estimates range widely – $8 -
$18 billion and you can get people who say it is $30 billion also. It is expensive stuff
for the population, for the country. |